1001 Nights: Upon that Beautiful Horizon
by Asher Elric
Summary: Jack says his last good by's DMC SPOILER ALERT!


1001 Nights: Upon that Beautiful Horizon

Jack/Pearl in a way…

A/N – Here is my contribution to this on going series challenged at The Black Pearl Sails Yahoo! group. Spoilers for DMC.

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He turned away from them – he didn't want them to see how broken inside he was. How hard it was to say those words, "She's only a ship…" it felt as if he hadn't a care for her, when he knew that she had been the one thing in his life that had never abandoned him.

The Black Pearl was the love of his life; even those whores in Tortuga couldn't compare to the majestic black ship that had carried him upon some of his more notorious adventures. She had been faithful to him. More so than he had the right to ask of her. Maybe it had been a mistake, asking Davy Jones to bring her back to him, but he had been depressed over her loss at Beckett's hands, and wanted to have her back. Safe and sound and in his arms.

He ran his hand upon her railing; his foots steps echoing sadly upon her deck. She didn't say anything to him; the wind didn't bring him any sort of comfort as it usually did when humming through her rigging. She was mad at him. She hadn't wanted to be brought up after Beckett sank her that first time. But she had been there, because she knew that Jack needed her.

_/Upon that beautiful horizon…I will always wait for you…/_ she seemed to say to him. She rocked violently as the Krakan below came back for a second helping of mortal flesh and ship planks. Jack whipped tears away from his eyes. It would do no good to be seen as weak, he hated that the most.

Elizabeth seemed to be there as his comforter; she threw herself into him and kissed him soundly. Jack forgot about his momentary sadness and let her be the steady hand that he needed. However, he hadn't seen this one betrayal when she chained him to the _Pearl_.

"That thing is after you, not us," Elizabeth said, and then she ran to the side and disappeared into the longboat with those who had survived this attack by Davy Jones. Jack watched her go, she had forced the hand of fate and now he didn't have a choice. In fact, he wondered if he ever really had one, wondered if this was what he had to do. Wondered why he ever ran away in the first place. Abandoning his only love!

It would do no good, he decided, to go without a fight. The _Pearl_ never did, and now there was nothing she could do because all she had was one pathetic man who had called himself her Captain, even when he had been searching for her those ten years.

/_I'm sorry girl, I am so sorry/_ Jack thought as he tried to escape the manacle. Why he even had manacles at the mast was beyond him. It was probably something Barbossa and his crew left him as a parting gift. No matter how hard he tugged; he just couldn't get out of it. But he had! She told him he had too! She wanted him to get loose so that he could escape. To leave her there and never look back. She didn't want him, her Captain, her provider, and confidant, to die like this! He wasn't meant to die like this.

She made him notice the lamp – he had to get loose, he had too! He just had too!

The ending, he knew, would have been different if he had jumped off the ship right then, after he had gotten that manacle off, and swam to the longboat and given Elizabeth a piece of his mind. He would have impressed upon her that it was not a good idea to cross Captain Jack Sparrow, but, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Instead, he patted the _Pearl_, giving her what courage he had, which wasn't much;

"You can rest after this," he promised her.

"I shan't ask you to be with me again…"

Jack, with his black ramrod straight, and sword in his hand; turned to face the mouth of the Krakan. With it's tentacles shooting high into the air, intent on eating him and his beloved ship. Jack raised his sword, which glinted in the hot Caribbean sun light, and a war scream came from his lungs. He hadn't even known he had the breadth to produce it. Then, with one last bid of good by to HIS _Pearl_ – he stepped up to meet his fate.

END


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